On September 10, 2015, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) attended a meeting with congressional staffers from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
The meeting was to follow up on a January 14, 2014, hearing entitled, "The Scope of Copyright Protection," [see related article] which was one of 20 hearings held by the Committee as part of its comprehensive copyright review. All 100 witnesses from these hearings were invited to attend individual follow-up meetings with bipartisan Committee staff to further discuss the issues.
Since the time of ANSI's January 2014 testimony, a number of developments have taken place with respect to the broad issue of incorporation by reference (IBR) of standards into regulation. For example, the Office of the Federal Register issued its Final Rule on IBR in November 2014. [see related article]
ANSI prepared a brief leave-behind for Committee members and staffers, which outlines these developments, as well as the continued position of the U.S. standardization community on the "reasonable availability" of IBR-ed standards.
Looking for more information on IBR? Visit www.ansi.org/ibr.